This is a past event.

Biomedical Engineering Research Seminar

Owen McCarty

Oregon Health & Sciences University

Abstract

Sepsis remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Select
medical devices, such as ECMO, can provide life-saving support; however, their
use is plagued by striking rates of thrombosis and bleeding. Likewise, mortality
remains poor in the population of critically ill patients requiring ECMO, driven by
a proinflammatory and prothrombotic pathologic host response. Our current
focus is to evaluate the mechanistic roles of coagulation FXII as a key driver of
both device thrombosis and septic thrombinflamation. We will discuss our
recent discovery that uncoupling the contact activation pathway of coagulation
mitigates device associated thrombosis in human and animal models. New data
will be presented suggesting that FXII plays a pathologic role in systemic
inflammation and organ compromise in bacterial and polymicrobial sepsis. The
seminar will conclude by outlining a roadmap for pharmacological targeting of
FXII to safely reduce or prevent ECMO-associated thromboinflammation.

Bio

A native of Rochester, Dr. McCarty received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering
from SUNY Buffalo, and a Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from Johns
Hopkins University, where his research focused on the identification and
characterization of tumor cell receptors for blood platelets and leukocytes. He
performed his postdoctoral research on platelet cell biology in the
Pharmacology Department at the University of Oxford and University of
Birmingham, UK in the group of Dr. Steve Watson. Dr. McCarty joined Oregon
Health & Science University in 2005, where he holds an appointment as a
Professor in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Cell,
Developmental & Cancer Biology and the Division of Hematology & Medical
Oncology in the OHSU School of Medicine. Dr. McCarty serves as the Chair of
the Biomedical Engineering Department and a fellow of the American Heart
Association.